Free At Last

　　July 13, 1958; May 11, 1957 October 12, 1957

　　When the heart is a slave to its moods and defilements — greed, aversion, and delusion — it”s like being a slave to poor people, troublemakers, and crooks, all of whom are people we shouldn”t be enslaved to. The "poor people" here are greed: hunger, desire, never having enough. This feeling of "not enough" is what it means to be poor.

　　As for aversion, this doesn”t necessarily mean out-and-out anger. It also means being grumpy or in a bad mood. If anyone annoys us or does something displeasing, we get irritated and resentful. This is called being a slave to troublemakers.

　　Delusion means seeing good as evil or evil as good, right as wrong or wrong as right, thinking you”re good when you”re evil, or evil when you”re good. This is called being a slave to crooks.

　　But if the mind becomes a slave to goodness, this is called being a slave to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, in which case we”re well-off because the Buddha is a kind person. He won”t make us work all hours of the day and instead will allow us time to rest and find peace of mind.

　　But still, as long as we”re slaves, we can”t say that it”s really good, because slaves have no freedom. They still have a price on their heads. Only when we gain release from slavery can we be fully free and happy. So for this reason, be diligent in your work: Meditate a lot every day. You”ll profit from it, get to buy yourself out of slavery to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, and gain Liberation. Don”t let there be anyone at all over you giving you orders. That”s when it”s really ideal.

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　　Actually, the Buddha never meant for us to take as our mainstay anything or anyone else aside from ourselves. Even when we take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, he never praised it as being really ideal. He wanted us to take ourselves as our refuge. "The self is its own mainstay:" We don”t have to take our authority from anyone else. We can depend on ourselves and govern ourselves. We”re free and don”t have to fall back on anyone else. When we can reach this state, that”s when we”ll be released from slavery — and truly happy.

　　When we”re slaves to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, we”re told to be generous, to observe the precepts, and to practice meditation — all of which are things that will give rise to inner worth within us. In being generous, we have to suffer and work because of the effort involved in finding wealth and material goods that we then give away as donations. In observing the precepts, we have to forgo the words and deeds we would ordinarily feel like saying or doing. Both of these activities are ways in which we benefit others more than ourselves. But when we practice meditation, we sacrifice inner objects — unskillful thoughts and mental states — and make our minds solid, sovereign, and pure.

　　This is called paying homage to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha through the practice — which the Buddha praised as better than paying homage with material objects. Even though the Buddha would have benefited personally from the homage shown with material objects, he never praised it as being better than homage shown through the practice, which gives all its benefits to the person who pays the homage. This was the sort of homage that pleased the Buddha, because the practice of training the heart to reach purity is the way by which a person can gain release from all suffering and stress. The Buddha had the kindness and compassion to want to help living beings gain freedom from all forms of suffering, which is why he taught us to meditate, so that we can free our hearts from their slavery to the defilements of the world.

　　When we become slaves to the religion — to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha — we”re still not released from sufferi…

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